Floyd Roland

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 18, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 1, 2008–2009, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill makes supplementary appropriations for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2008–2009 fiscal year.

Pursuant to section 32.1(2) of the Financial Administration Act, I wish to table the following document, entitled Interactivity Transfers Exceeding $250,000 for the Period April 1, 2007, to March 31, 2008.

Document 67-16(2), Interactivity Transfers Exceeding $250,000 for the Period April 1, 2007, to March 31, 2008, tabled.

Again, having to be careful with all the interested parties out there, we have to first see where the situation sits within the community. At that point, the department would look at reviewing its next options. We are considering what options are available now and would be prepared to sit down with the Members for the community and look at what the next processes or steps may be.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That case has had some controversy in the community of Hay River when it comes to the community development permit process. An RFP was issued. The decision was made by the Government of the Northwest Territories. Since then, because of the issues that have arisen there, it’s been extended. The existing operation contract has been extended, but we are coming to a point where we’re going to have to review other options that are available to us if there’s no settlement in that community.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister responsible for the area for homelessness works with the other departments that actually deliver the services themselves. He committed to working with those social programs Ministers in getting the information and ensures that he continues to work on that path as they sit down and put this together.

Mr. Chairman, the plan we put in place will require discipline, and this process is a part of that. We would again look forward to trying to make sure we stick to the rules of the new way of doing business. Every supplementary appropriation would come before the House, and departments would have to stand the scrutiny, of course. We would use the same level of measure before even putting it into this document for Members to see.

It will require discipline. It's different from the traditional practice, and we're going to try hard to maintain that. It's going to be quite a jump from previous years...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, the area of this supplementary appropriation, as the Member has highlighted…. As we’ve budgeted for the fiscal year, we set aside in our fiscal framework an amount of dollars for supplementary appropriation. At times over the last number of years we’ve…. In fact, the Government of the Northwest Territories has gone over that initial amount.

This year, after being elected and starting to put the budget together, we took the $25 million initially allocated for the supplementary appropriation, and based on the drawdown or a percentage of the drawdown from departments...

Mr. Chairman, to my right is the secretary to the Financial Management Board, Ms. Kathleen LeClair, and to my left is Mr. Charles Tolley, manager of budget development.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 1, 2008–2009, requests authority for additional appropriations of $50.317 million for operations expenditures and $106.345 million for capital investment expenditures in the 2008–2009 fiscal year.

To clarify the contents of the bill, the $48.4 million of operation expenditure appropriations includes $15.6 million offset by federal revenues and $32 million for contribution funding for the continuation of community infrastructure projects not completed in the 2007–2008 fiscal period. Funding for these projects was approved and lapsed...